I've said before that it's so interesting how seeing this shipping container conjures up all kinds of unexpected emotions. In Dubai when our container arrived, I immediately burst into tears because it reminded me of the last time I had seen the truck in front of our former home in Katy. This time around, I didn't experience the same emotional response. After living in a mostly empty house all summer, I was ready for our stuff and for the project of putting our home together. Finally.
Bright and early on a hot summer day in August, the container was opened and a crew of 8 guys arrived to help unload. They prepped the house with red carpets and the long, busy day of work was underway. I should note that Jeff was in Dubai at the time, so it was definitely a stressful and chaotic day for me as I juggled the unpacking with shuffling kids to their summer activities.
I had to apologize to our new neighbors for the container and multiple trucks parked outside most of the day, on top of the insane amount of packing materials that littered our yard and driveway. It's amazing how much plastic and paper is used in the moving process.
After many hours, the container was finally empty. But the work was LONG from over. The 8-man crew worked most of the day to reassemble furniture, unpack kitchen and bathroom items, and clean up the mess.
By the time the crew left, it was late afternoon and I was pooped. I was a little surprised at the state of things, because in Dubai the crew had unpacked and worked for 2 solid days. I guess that's not how it works here in the US. There were unpacked boxes and packing materials in every room and blocking most doorways, and despite how hard I worked, that's the way things remained for quite some time. I underestimated how much work it would be for me to get the unpacking finished while Jeff was away for another 2 weeks. We started out with around 300 boxes of stuff and it took me a full week simply to open them all and figure out where things were.
I had to take so many deep breaths to get through the next few weeks as we tried to find the right spot for everything. Things just don't work or fit the same as you transition from one home to another (to another), so I had a hard time figuring out where everything should go. It was the beginning of a long process as we worked to make our new house feel like home.
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